First try at Patter
I know it’s been awhile since I wrote. I got some help from Mike Driscoll and a few friends, Don & Jane, Bob and JoAnne, Elaine & Gene and Karen & Jim. I cleaned out my garage and got to pratice calling some patter. For non-dancers out there. Patter calling is using any and all of a square dance level’s program to get the dancers from their home position through a series of calls to get them back to their home position.
Thanks to the my friends, I was able to pratice the patter side of calling. No one walked out and except for one couple who has a previous commentent, they will be back next Tuesday to help me again. This week I have to write some modules that will make things easier.
Till next time,
Brian
on 
May 28th, 2009 at 7:46 PM
hey this is a very interesting article!
June 30th, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Since the evolution of Sight Calling dancing Patter Calling has become a bit of a bore. Callers feel that since they can get you home, they can shotgun from the hip. Patter Calling used to be like a Chess game where you planned out moves to get a Check Mate without the people seeing it coming. It also contained Body Flow!
But, then dancers today have to know the calls better than the caller giving them. All they have to do is flap their gums and very seldom do they see if the movement flows. They just want to see if the dancers can figure out how to do the movement DBD. The idea of actually dancing it is out the window! To many, make Singing Calls another Patter Call with little care about whether the people are dancing!
A caller once told me to dig through old records and check out the figures. Many of those callers worked hard to come up with a clever figure! But, check them out first because not all of them worked! There is no sin in using Cue Cards if you are good enough to read and not get lost!
Of course I would rather they broke down laughing than finish the figure! You Know! How you laugh when you are playing twister, and the last hand or foot just doesn’t quite reach!
June 30th, 2009 at 5:23 PM
Norman: I do understand. I think I plan to use both sight and modules. Of course singing calls do have so good figures within them.
Brian
August 15th, 2009 at 3:11 PM
I hope you have at least 10 singing calls under your belt now! When you hear a song you like to dance and sing along with the caller buy it and sing it so many times it’s burned in your memory. You need to have about 30 in your pocket. Maybe someday Square Dancing will go back to 13 tips a night and if you had 26 singing calls you could call a dance, and people would have fun!
August 15th, 2009 at 7:05 PM
Norman: I am getting close to 10 singing calls now. I am trying to learn a new one every 2-3 weeks or so. Problem is that some of the singing calls I like are no longer available so I keep searching for them in the secondary market.
I’ll let you know when I hit 30
Brian